Heddle adjustment for looms.



F. T. WITHEE & R. WHITE.

HEDDLE ADJUSTMENT FOB LOOilS. I

Al fmonlon FILED AUG. 7, 1907.

Patented Oct. 20, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

7 7 w [NViNTOHS ATTORNEYS WITNESSES F. T. WITHEE 6; R." WHITE. HEDDLE ADJUSTMENT FOR LOOMS. uumumx rum) 116.7, 1907.

901,927. Patented Oct. 20, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES A TTOHNE Y8 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED T. WITHEE, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, AND ROBERT WHITE, OF GLEVELAND, OHIO.

HEDDLE ADJUSTMENT FOR LOOMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 20, 1908.

Original application filed September 28, 1906, Serial No. 336,547. Divided and this application filed August 7, 1907.

Serial No. 387,510.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRED T. VVITHEE, a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, and ROBERT WHITE, a resident of Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, both citizens of the United States of America, have invented new and useful Improve ments in Hedclle Adjustments for Looms, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in power looms designed especially for weaving wire-cloth, and more particularly to the heddle mechanism of such looms, and consists essentially of yielding, flexible, or resilient connections between the treadles and other parts of the heddle-operating mechanism, and a certain peculiar stop for the heddle'frames, all as hereinafter set forth.

-The objects of our invention are, first, to insure smooth, finished cloth by providing means for so setting the heddles or so controlling or limiting their motion as to produce a uniform shed for the passa e of the shuttle, such means being adjustzible; second, to provide aheddle adjustment and operating mechanism which while being unusually simple are at the same time strong, durable, efiicient, and comparatively inexpensive; third, to provide devices and mechanisms of this kind which can be applied to any ordinary wire-cloth weaving loom, and, fourth, to furnish a heddle adjustment by means of which one familiar with the art can easily and quickly set the heddles for the formation of a uniform shed of any required size, thus obviating much difficulty that has been experienced heretofore with the shedding mechanism. We attain these objects by the means and mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a transverse section through a loom embodying our invention, only so much. of the loom being shown as is required to properly illustrate the application of the new features, and, Fig. 2, a front view of the upper members of the heddle adjustment device, the middle portions of the heddleframes being broken out.

Similar figures refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

A suitable supporting frame is represented at 5 for a drive shaft 8, a shaft 9 in front of said drive-shaft and driven from the latter through the medium of meshing gears indicated by broken lines at 10 and 11, a heddle-operating rock-shaft 12, a breast-roll. 13, a cloth-roll 14, and the heddle mechanism described below. The gear 10 is tight on the shaft 8 and the gear 11 tight on the shaft 9. The drive-shaft S is mounted in the lower part of the frame 5, and has power applied thereto in any suitable manner and from any suitable source. The breast-roll shaft 23, the cloth-roll shaft 24, and the rock-shaft 12 are mounted in the frame.

Inside of each end of the frame is a bearing-box 42, for a roll 43, adjustably supported and suspended from the cross-bar of said frame by a screw 44 and nuts 45-45. Two heddle-frames 46 provided with heddles 47 are retained in position one in front of the other and reciprocated in opposite directions by a strap 48 over each roll 43, a strap 49 fastened to the heddle rock-shaft 12, and the proper turn-buckle connections between the straps and heddle-frames The treadles which rock the shaft 12 to shift the heddles, in the manner hereinafter explained, appear at 50-50, the same having their rear terminals pivoted at 51 between the adjacent foot of the frame 5 and a base-block 52. The treadles 50 are intermittently oscillated by two cams 53 on the shaft 9 working against rollers 54'54 mounted on or in said treadles.

The warp-wires 55 pass through the heddles 47, and over the breast-roll 13 to the cloth-roll 14.

The parts thus far descrlbed are generally old and well-known, but they enter into intimate association and, to a greater or less extent, into combination with the new features, which latter we will now take up in detail.

It will be observed that we introduce two springs 56 into the operating mechanism for the rock-shaft 12 and provide adjustable stops consisting of screws 57 and brackets 58 for the heddle-frames 46. The springs 56 are connected at their upper ends with two straps 59 fastened to the shaft 12 or to a collar thereon, and at their lower ends to the treadles 50 by means of eye-bolts or otherwise. There are two brackets 58, one on the inside face of each end of the frame, and each bracket has two screws 57 passing through the same. The rear screws serve to I directly limit the upward movement of the l back hedd1e frame and the forward screws perform the same service for the front heddle-frame, the downward movement also of the heddle-frames being necessarily limited by the screws although indirectly, owing to the'fact that the two heddle-frames are so suspended that they have no independent movement and when either is checked in its travel the other is also checked.

In practice, the screws 57, one at each end of each heddle-frame 46 above the same, are adjusted in their brackets to set the heddles 47 for the desired shed, then when the loom is operated the cams 53 oscillate the treadles alternately and they in turn reciprocate the heddle-frames intermittently and in 0pposite directions alternately, each of the latter in its upward travel striking the associated pair of screws 57 and thus having the same amount of movement every time, the result being a uniform shed and an improved product. Vithout the springs 56 the desired results from the use of the straps could not well be obtained, because there would then be no provision for eliminating any excess movement which the cams and treadles might have a tendency to impart to the heddle mechanism and for preventing undue strain on said mechanism, but said springs absorb as it were whatever excess movement there may be and obviate all possible strain.

The heddle adjustment as herein disclosed is a divisional part of our application for United States Letters Patent filed September 28th, 1906, and serially numbered 336,547.

e are aware that resilient means and stop devices have been employed before in connection with, if not as parts of, shedding mechanism, hence do not seek to claim the same broadly, but

What we do claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination, in a loom, with the drive-shaft of the loom, a shaft driven from said drive-shaft and having cams mounted of the heddle-frames, operating mechanism 1 for said heddle-frames, such mechanism being yieldingly connected with said treadles, and stops in the path of travel of the heddleframes arranged to limit the movement of the same.

2. The combination, in a loom, with the drive-shaft of the loom, a shaft driven by said driveshaft and having cams mounted thereon, and treadles actuated by said cams,

of the heddle-frames, operating mechanism for said heddle-frames, such mechanism including a rock-shaft, stops in the path of travel of the heddle-frames arranged to limit the movement of the same, and yielding connecting means between said rock-shaft and said treadles.

3. The combination, in a loom, with the frame of the loom, rolls and a rock-shaft supported by such frame, straps passing over and under such rolls and rock-shaft, the heddle-frames, connections between the latter and said straps, and yielding means to actuate said rock-shaft, of suitable members supported from the loom frame in the paths of travel of said heddle-frames to limit the movement of the latter.

at. The combination, in a loom, with the heddle frames, suitably supported rolls and a rock-shaft, straps passing over and under such rolls and rock-shaft, connections between the heddle-frames and said straps,

and stop members bracketed in the paths of travel of said heddle-frames, of the treadles, and connecting mediums between the latter and said rock-shaft, such mediums consisting in part of springs connected with the rockshaft and treadles.

FRED T. l/VITHEE. ROBERT XVHITE. WVitnesses as to Fred T. Withee:

F. A. CUTTER, A. C. FAIRBANKS. WVitnesses as to Robert Vhite:

J. H. SALTSMAN, WM. FRANKLIN. 

